1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the manufacture of cheese in block form and more particularly to the reconstituting of block cheese trimmings into horns which may be sliced and packaged for the consumer market.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In the manufacture of block cheese, such as swiss and colby, "hoops" are conventionally filled with curds which are compressed therein to form blocks or horns as the case may be. The hoops are frusto-conically shaped, serving as molds, which facilitate removing the horn after the cheese is cured therein. The contents of the hoops are maintained under compacting pressure from about three to four hours following which the solidified blocks or horns are removed from the hoops and then stored in plastic bags for about six weeks at refrigerated temperatures before further processing and packaging.
The temperature of the curd material at the time of filling the hoops is in the vicinity of 90.degree. F. The compacting pressure ranges in the vicinity of from about seventy to ninety pounds per square inch.
After the period of six weeks cure, the colby horns are transversely sliced and halved to provide semi-circular segments of predetermined size and weight. These segments are then wrapped, labeled and placed in containers for shipment to sales outlets.
Frequently, the horns not being of uniform length, the end cuts or slices being too thin for packaging are cut into smaller pieces and placed in reject containers for disposal. Some of this reject material is utilized for making pasteurized processed cheese spread, but in any event these rejects represent an economic loss, since the sales price thereof is below that of the prime product sold in the consumer packages.
In the past, block cheese has been fabricated by first grinding preprocessed cheese and then forcing the ground mass through an extruding chamber having an orifice of a predetermined cross-sectional shape and size. The cheese emerged from the extruding die in the form of a strip which was continuously laid onto a sheet of wax paper for transporting to a cooling atmosphere such as that inside a refrigerator. After a sufficient perid of cooling, the cheese was cut into squares or blocks of a size that could be conveniently packaged.